Dubuque County crews repair damaged roads, brace for more storms

A small mudslide blocked one lane of Herber Road in Dubuque County Thursday morning

DUBUQUE (KWWL) -

Crews in Dubuque County spent their Thursday cleaning up from heavy overnight rain while bracing for more.

Swiss Valley Park officials evacuated more than a dozen campers overnight as a precautionary measure.

Brian Preston is executive director of the Dubuque County Conservation Board and said more heavy rain Thursday night could mean the campground stays closed through the weekend, though a damage assessment Friday will help them make that decision.

Dubuque County crews worked all day Thursday to repair a road called Lovers Lane, part of which a swollen creek had partially washed-out overnight.

Jesse Burkle got stopped in his tracks at the road closure while on his way to deliver some electrical supplies for work.

"We're trying to get across and the road's washed out, so I'm going to meet the guy and we're going to walk it over," Burkle explained. "Every day's a different deal, so this just happens to be today's thing."

Elsewhere in the county, a log jam under the Herber Road bridge over the Little Maquoketa River caused water to flood part of the Herber Road by John Deere Dubuque Works.

Dubuque County engineer Bret Wilkinson said that is a trouble area, however, that floods four to five times a year. The road re-opened by noon Thursday.

Just north from that on Herber Road, a small mudslide closed one lane of traffic for part of the morning.

Dubuque County neighbor Duane Koltes saw the power of this week's winds firsthand. His neighbor's trampoline blew clear across his yard Monday night and into his other neighbor's cornfield.

"The next morning, I didn't know what it was!" Koltes said. "I looked out the picture window and I thought, 'What's the piece of equipment?' I had to go outside to see it was the trampoline!"

There was an urgency to crews' work Thursday, as they wanted to make repairs to the overnight damage before any more rain Thursday night made road conditions even worse.